Changelog

4.10.9

01/02/2022

Adaptations of the source code for the use of the myPHP Guestbook with PHP 8.1.x [also compatible with v.8.2.x and 8.3]. The downward compatibility is safe down to PHP 7.0, presumably also for PHP 5.6 given, whereby however under PHP 5.x and 7.x no more testing and no more support takes place.

An update from one of the older v.4.10.x to 4.10.9 is simple: Only some files have to be exchanged or reloaded on the server, changes to the database entries are not mandatory for error-free operation. - Simply upload the files described in the "ReadMe-Update-EN.pdf" to the server and -if already existing- overwrite the files with the same name.

Attention: Updating from one of the v.4.9.x or lower to v.4.10.9 requires the creation of (at least) one new database table and changes to the database entries for the various templates.

Such a database update can, as usual, be done quickly and easily with the file included in the download. Read and note also for this the "ReadMe-Update-EN.pdf" attached to the download!

4.10.8

09/08/2021

With version 4.10.8 the language support has been extended by French and Italian (many thanks to Mrs. Valentina Panciroli / Italy) and by Swedish (also many thanks to Mr. Anders Rundkvist / Sweden). This means that the myPHP Guestbook is now available in a total of 10 languages.

Minor bug fixes and improvements.

4.10.7

05/01/2021

myPHP Guestbook v. 4.10.7 is essentially a bugfix release, which additionally includes an improved quote function as well as another template and completes the revision of the HTML markup started with v.4.10.6.

Under PHP 8, the editing of a template no longer worked correctly. - In the course of the bug fixing, the source code around the editing or creation of templates, which was previously spread over six files, was combined in one file and renewed in parts.

The second bug concerns the function of a moderated guestbook. If the setting was selected to disable saving of any IPs, including those of spam entries, new entries to the guestbook where the program did not identify any spammer characteristics were immediately released and were publicly visible, even if they were supposed to be checked and released by the Admin first.

As a third point, the date and time display did not work properly anymore when possibly adding guestbook entries under the link "Admin Blog" in the Admin Panel.

In addition to fixing these errors, the function for quoting and replying to existing entries has been changed: Until now, the quoted entry was transferred to the text field of the input form. – As of v.4.10.7, the quoted entry is temporarily cached on the server and only inserted there when the entry preview is called or the new entry is finally saved. The heading of the entry form shows which entry is being replied to. In the basic settings, you can individually specify whether the quoted entry should be inserted before or after the guest's reply.

Finally, during a new installation or database update, another new template for websites with black/dark design is also installed.

In the download since 05/27/2021 another change of the "insert.php" (form page for new guestbook entries) was made, because there were problems with the changed quote function when using a certain configuration option, which were fixed.

4.10.6

03/03/2021

Further enhanced protection of the Admin Area against intrusion by unauthorized third parties. For this purpose, it is now possible, among other things, to activate a 2-factor authentication for login (default setting: disabled). Details can be found after installation or update to the v.4.10.6 in the explanations in the Admin Panel under "Help", there Section IV. "Terms of Use" => "Admin Control Panel".

The display of error messages, e.g. in case of invalid or missing necessary entries in the search function and on the "insert.php" has been changed to the nowadays common display of tooltips; only on very small screens, e.g. smartphones, it remains for better clarity with the previous error messages above the input form.

As soon as an internal link is clicked at the end of the "index-" and "insert.php" pages, e.g. to scroll between several pages with guestbook entries or to call up a post preview or similar, the page no longer simply jumps around but scrolls to the top of the page at the same time. This has advantages especially for an integration via IFrame, because not all browsers reach the desired jump target within IFrames (e.g. Firefox). The scroll function can be disabled if desired.

Several other updates to the external CSS file and the index- and insert-files in the main directory, as well as to the search function.

4.10.5

01/01/2021

Adaptations of the source code for the use of the myPHP Guestbook with PHP 8.0. The downward compatibility is safe down to PHP 7.0, presumably also for PHP 5.6 given, whereby however under PHP 5.x no more testing and no more support takes place.

Extension and optimization of spam protection by adapting it to the spam bots currently in circulation.

On repeated request of several users the possibility was added to change the input fields for "Place" and "Country" to required fields.

Minor layout changes in "insert.php" and correction of two undefined variables in the admin panel.

Revision and adaptation of the Dutch translation. My thanks for this go to Mr. Pierre Linssen (Netherlands).

Some English language phrases have also been revised to make them more in line with common English usage. For this I thank Mr. Larry Lachance (Jacksonville/FL - USA).

Integration of the changes introduced in version 4.10.4 after the initial release (see below).

Especially for American users: In the download since 01/06/2021 v.4.10.5 was still supplemented, so that now also in the admin area beside the date in the format mm/dd/yyyy all times are represented in the 12-hour format.

4.10.4

04/01/2020

The introduction of PHP 7.4 required several changes to the source code of the myPHP Guestbook. A full compatibility of the script is given with the new version 4.10.4 with PHP 7.4 as well as downwards to 5.6.

At the same time, some layout adjustments were made and the CSS files were freed from a number of code snippets from outdated browser versions.

The new recommendations of the German BSI for a good password have been incorporated into the password check on the page "Admin- + Login Data" in the Admin Control Panel in download starting February 10, 2020.

In the middle of February I was informed about a display error when calling the file from the admin panel to check if the used version of the myPHP Guestbook is still up to date or if there is a newer version available. The bug was fixed afterwards.

At the same time hashing with ARGON2 has been enabled for the protection of the admin password (usable from PHP 7.2 resp. 7.3 on, as far as Argon2 support is available on the server).

And finally, a check for special characters in the passwords to be entered was added to the installer to prevent possible installation problems.

These last three additions are available for download from February 26, 2020.

Due to requests from American users, a function was added on July 14, 2020, which displays the time on the public pages with the guestbook entries and the post preview in 12-hour format as soon as the US American flag was set in the admin panel.

4.10.3

01/09/2019

Optimizations and two bugfixes in the admin area.

Adjustments to the external CSS file.

The "Help" texts in parts have been renewed and restructured for better transparency.

Revision of the installation script.

4.10.2

13/04/2019

The changes in the version 4.10.2 of the myPHP Guestbook are completely dedicated to data protection and here - not only, but especially - the partial aspect of an improved anonymization of the IPs temporarily stored by the script and their subsequent deletion from the database as soon as they are no longer needed.

Bugs: If BBCodes were deactivated, the file "guestbook.php", which displays the guestbook entries in the admin panel, had an error. Bug fixed.

Every user is recommended to update to version 4.10.2 or higher.

4.10.1

17/03/2019

myPHP Guestbook Version 4.10.1 is a bugfix and security release.

It has the same features as v.4.10.0, but offers more security when using the search function and better performance when displaying guestbook entries through the use of "Prepared Statements".

In the Safari browser there was a small but unsightly "break" in the display of the search field. To fix this, two minor adjustments were made to the external CSS file.

4.10.0

04/03/2019

V.4.10.0 is after almost one year a new release, which contains beside some general improvements new features.

If desired, it is now possible to activate a search function with which a user can search in the guestbook entries for names, text contents or also for entries at certain time periods. Found matches are displayed numerically and the corresponding entries are displayed separately with colored highlighting of the search results.

Furthermore, a link symbol can now be inserted in each guestbook entry, which contains the URL under which a selected entry in the network can be linked and accessed. (Test it with the link below to post #186.)

Fundamental revision of the validation of entries for URLs (homepages) and e-mail addresses. Now, for example, URLs with spaces or commas and e-mail addresses with special characters are accepted as valid.

Removal of the IDNA conversion that is no longer required.

The (optional) text for a consent to be declared by the guest in case of a new entry in the guestbook with the processing of his inputs according to the EU-wide valid General Data Protection Regulation (EU-GDPR) has been updated.

There were requests because uploaded photos in the guestbook display were "upside down" or "tilted" by 90°. - This usually happens with pictures that were taken with smartphones and are then aligned correctly on the device by the automatic rotation, but "incorrectly" after an upload.

A function has therefore been added to the image upload file that checks the alignment of an uploaded image as far as possible and automatically corrects it if necessary. (Thanks for the suggestion to the user "Elias K.", Post #186 in the guestbook.)

Own experiments have shown that this is not (always) the case with photos taken with compact- or other "normal" cameras or that have already been processed. For this reason, in the admin panel under the function "Edit image", the additional option was added to rotate an uploaded JPG file to the desired position with a mouse click, without having to use an image processing program.

After the first release of the final version 4.9.3, the required files were inserted there in two steps in the course of January 2019 and can now be generally "upgraded" with the current download.

4.9.3

02/01/2019

With the version 4.9.3 the myPHP Guestbook is now also available in Polish. My sincere thanks for the work of translation go to Mr. Peter Renka, Düsseldorf/Germany.

Minor optimizations and bugfixes.

Addendum: There were demands because uploaded photos in the guestbook display were "upside down" or " tilted" by 90°. - This usually happens with pictures that were taken with smartphones and are then correctly positioned on the device due to the automatic rotation, but "incorrectly" after an upload.

To fix this, the possibility to rotate an uploaded JPG file to the desired position was added to the admin panel under the function "Edit image". The files added accordingly are included in the current download since 06/01/19. Users who already have v.4.9.3 installed and want to "upgrade" it, please download the current version 4.9.3 and exchange the following files after unpacking: Directory "admin" => "edit_guest_pictures.php" and "guest_pictures.php" as well as the language files from the directory "lang".

4.9.2

03/11/2018

On a desktop PC, titles appear with additional information about some features when hovering with the mouse. This does not work on touch devices. Therefore, several central functions have been changed accordingly, so that even on touch screens the stored information becomes visible when touched. This concerns e.g. the Title-Infos to uploaded and in guestbook entries posted images or the star rating and a number of links in the admin panel. In this context, the checkboxes and radio buttons were also optically reworked and the source code of the page for the display of guestbook entries was cleaned up.

By popular request, a new checkbox has been added to the page for a new guestbook entry ("insert.php") directly above the button for saving a new entry. The guest must mark this box in order to give his express consent to the processing of his inputs.

The input field for an ICQ link has been removed because it is no longer relevant.

Quality check of newly entered login passwords in the admin panel.

myPHP Guestbook v.4.9.2 is tested and released also for PHP 7.3 and MySQL 8.0.

4.9.1

08/07/2018

Some providers have recently started upgrading MySQL to v.5.7. In MySQL 5.7, unlike previous versions of MySQL, Strict Mode is the default. If the STRICT mode is not deactivated, some insert and update queries of the myPHP Guestbook in its previous version have functional problems (see among other things: Data Type Default Values for MySQL 5.7).

myPHP Guestbook version 4.9.1 is identical in functionality to v.4.9.0, only compatible with MySQL 5.7, as of course also with the older MySQL versions 5.+.

4.9.0

10/05/2018

With version 4.9.0 the possibility was added to the public pages of the guestbook ("index-" and "insert.php") to display a link to a Data Privacy Policy in order to meet the requirements of the EU-DSGVO.

Notice: A few explanations for your privacy policy when using the myPHP Guestbbok can be found under this link as a pdf-file (only in German).

Various layout options, in particular the desired font representation, have been simplified:

• As of v.4.9, the desired font is selected in the admin panel via a drop-down menu from the fonts that are considered to be sufficiently web-safe and set with a click.
• In the same way, the font size between 10 and 24px as well as between 0.7 and 1.5em can be selected and easily set via drop-down menu.
• The colors for links in guestbook entries (normal and hover state) can be stored via input fields as desired.
• The form for new guestbook entries ("insert.php") can now be displayed by a click instead of the default width (500px) with the same width as the admin has set for the display of guestbook entries.

For all these settings no more changes to the CSS are necessary.

The display of the drop-down menus on the public guestbook pages has been reworked to make it more visually appealing and in line with today's possibilities.

If several users wish, it is now possible to enter and publish an introductory greeting text without simultaneously displaying a graphic file as a banner. Furthermore, this text is no longer only displayed on the index page with the guestbook entries, but also above the entry form on the "insert.php".

As soon as the US flag is set in the admin panel, the date is also entered and displayed in guestbook entries and for all other data entries in US format (mm-dd-yyyy).

Adaptation of the CSS with partly dynamic class selection depending on the set font size and the function for converting the BBCode for the display of set graphic files.

The backend now has a dynamic width for optimized display even on small screens down to 360px. In order to ensure the usability of all pages of the admin panel also on a smartphone, some pages had to be adapted in the optical representation as well as the table structure.

Various adjustments to the SQL inserts in the files "guestbook_options.php", "insert.php" and others.

Bugs: Error in the file "login.php" fixed.

4.8.1

03/03/2018

If the admin made individual entries in the or one of the fields "Text of the link/button","Text for rating function" and/or "Change name of subject field", these entries were also displayd even if the guest made use of the possibility to select another language. The texts were not translated and in the "wrong" language. - As of v. 4.8.1, individual entries in one of the above-mentioned input fields are now only displayed in the language defined in the admin control panel (default setting). If an user selects another language, entries for these fields are ignored and instead the predefined text from the selected language file is displayed.

For the transfer from other, incompatible guestbooks via copy & paste to myPHP Guestbook the input form in the admin panel has been reworked.

From now on, with the info e-mail to the admin in case of a new guestbook entry, a rating made by the user with his or her entry will also be announced.

Several minor adjustments and bugfixes.

4.8.0

01/01/2018

New language files "Slovak" and "Czech". My heartfelt thanks go to Mr. Peter Schoeller, Düren/Germany.

For websites with an international audience there is now the possibility of an individual language selection by the user. With v.4.8.0 the myPHP Guestbook can be configured in the Admin-Control-Panel by one click in such a way, that every visitor can choose his preferred language from the existing language files. For this purpose, a list of flags of the possible national languages is displayed on the page with the guestbook entries, which the visitor can click on to open a drop-down menu for language selection. For all other visitors, the default language selection remains in the admin panel.

All users who link the guestbook directly and do not integrate it into their own page via "iframe" or "include", can now easily insert their own homepage banner and an individual greeting text without having to intervene in the source code. The text can be freely edited in the admin control panel and formatted with BBCodes. The banner is uploaded via FTP to an attached separate folder and then selected and saved in the admin control panel via a drop-down menu. Two examples are included in the download and are available after installation.

The e-mails sent automatically by the program after a new guestbook entry and a file upload can now be sent to up to three additional persons in addition to the admin.

At the end of the "index-" and "insert.php" there is now the possibility to add a link to the login to the admin control panel.

The title of the input field for the "Subject" can be changed freely in the admin panel as of v.4.8.0.

If the administrator sets the "Number of unsuspected links in posts" to "0" in the configuration settings, the BBCode button for entering an URL is no longer displayed. In addition, saving a guestbook entry in which the user tries to insert a link anyway is prevented and an error message is ejected.

An animated "Loading" file has been added to the photo upload page, which is displayed to visitors during the time of a file upload and is intended to help fill the waiting time. (Thanks for the suggestion to Mr. Peter Schoeller.)

Validation of the uploaded photos by a user extended by an additional check.

The citation function now also includes quoting a possibly existing admin comment to a cited entry. Image files contained in the cited post will still be filtered out, but now a short note about the removed image will be inserted.

If BBCodes were deactivated after entries in the guestbook already existed, these codes were not converted into HTML but still displayed in the running text. This has been changed; any BBCodes present in the text will now be hidden, with the exception of those for bold text, which will continue to be preserved and processed.

Revision and partial replacement of the smileys.

With the smilie upload function in the admin panel, almost every file type could be uploaded as long as it has not exceeded a certain size. As of v.4.8.0, a simple check for the allowed file type (*.jpg, *.png and *.gif) is performed.

Depending on whether the display of BBCodes is deactivated or not, the number of smilies displayed on "insert.php" automatically adapts to the available space. The number of smilies offered via a pop-up window has always been the same, however, which could lead to double display of symbols. From now on, both the number of additional icons and smilies offered with the pop-up window and the height of the pop-up window, will be dynamically adjusted to the number of elements displayed directly in the entry form.

If images are uploaded via FTP to the directory containing the image files to be displayed in the guestbook, their data must first be added to the database so that the photos can be displayed afterwards. This has been simplified by a drop-down menu.

The explanatory "info"texts offered in the admin panel for some functions have been extended and can now be called up via an appropriate icon.

For security reasons, the session created with the login to the admin panel is destroyed after 30 minutes of inactivity since v.4.5.5. Some users have complained about this surprising "forced logout". Therefore, the time until the session is destroyed is now displayed in the admin panel.

Some basic settings, which are not managed via the admin panel and were previously scattered in different files, have been centralized in the "functions.inc" file.

From the admin panel (only from there) it is no longer possible to call up homepages of guests or other URLs set by visitors. To protect against transmission of session IDs with the referrer, the external links in the admin area have been deactivated.

Added automatic server-side availability check of PHP's "mail()"function to the installer.

Revision of English translations.

Several minor adjustments to PHP, HTML and CSS code as well as some layout adjustments (only via CSS).

V.4.8.0 is tested and released also for PHP 7.2.

4.7.5

02/09/2017

Newly added language file "Dutch". My special thanks go to Mr. Marco Hopster, Enschede/Netherlands.

Revision and reorganization of the page "General Configuration" in the admin control panel to increase clarity. Added some new warnings.

4.7.4

15/07/2017

When uploading *png-files with transparent image parts (backgrounds etc.), the transparent parts are now preserved and are no longer displayed in black as before.

When uploading square *jpg or *png files that were larger than the size specified in the upload configuration, the largest default width or height was always used to create the reduced copy. From now on, the smallest predefined dimension for the production of the image copy is selected.

The maximum upload size for photos or PNG files has been increased from 5 MB to 6 MB. In addition, the "Upload configuration" link can now be used to display the default settings for file upload (maximum execution time, maximum upload size) provided by the respective provider.

The page for uploading pictures (pic.upload.php) was freely accessible on the web with blog mode activated and photo upload enabled at the same time. That's been changed. The site is only accessible for the admin in blog mode.

The language control of the script has been updated. From now on, the language file will be selected according to the country flag selected. This has the advantage, that several almost identical language files, which only differ due to the integrated national flag, can be avoided. Therefore, with v.4.7.4 the language files "at.php" and "ch.php" are no longer available. At the same time, a number of national flags have been added, namely from the English-speaking world in addition to Great Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia and Malta, from the Portuguese-speaking world in addition to Portugal, Brazil and - as previously - from the German-speaking world in addition to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In the course of this process, numerous superfluous "if $_GET ('lang')" queries have been removed from "index.php" and "insert.php".

Changed some reference targets in "backup.php". Additionally, the database entries for uploaded files via FTP in the "backup" directory have been simplified by adding a drop-down menu.

In blog mode, it is no longer mandatory to enter a name when writing a new entry (switching from mandatory field to optional).

Two new templates with corresponding styles added.

Time zones for Brazil, the USA and Australia can now also be selected and recorded during installation.

4.7.3

13/05/2017

Because the necessary extensions / settings are not available on all servers in order to perform the online query to determine the current version of myPHP-Guestbook, the file "check_update.php" was preceded by an appropriate check. This avoids unnecessary error messages. In addition, the corresponding variable with the string of the current version number was additionally protected.

The possibility, by means of automated massive attempts to guess the code for the release of the blocked Admin-Login was made more difficult. A premature unlocking of the login is completely blocked for a certain time, even if only one attempt is made with an incorrect release code.

Revision of the code generation for the release or the blocking of guestbook entries and uploaded photos. Simultaneously simplifying the entry activations and photo activations or deactivations in the admin panel and minor source code changes in the "pic.upload.php".

The text links in the admin panel for entry processing and commenting on an entry were replaced by graphic links.

4.7.2

18/03/2017

Source code adjustments for full guestbook compatibility under PHP 7.1.

Extension of the spam filter.

Update check is possible from the admin control panel.

4.7.1

04/03/2017

Improved data protection: As of v.4.7.1, no personalizable IPs are saved to the entries in the guestbook. As far as IPs are still temporarily saved for the purpose of protection against automated mass entries or for the statistics, this takes the form of an unidentifiable one-way hash algorithm. Only IPs for entries that are clearly defined as spam are recorded temporarily in the plaintext.

Various optimizations of the source code.

Spam filter expanded around the special characters from the Portuguese fonts.

For webmasters: As of 4.7.1, users with reduced login rights can be added to the admin panel.

Bugs: As of PHP 7.1.0, an error is thrown when using the rating function, because applying an empty index operator [] on a string is not longer allowed; fault fixed.

4.7.0

06/01/2017

An optional rating function was added to the script, comparable to the star rating of offers on Amazon.

• This allows the guest to choose between 1 and 5 stars during the entry in the guestbook for any purpose determined by the admin, e.g. to assess the website, photos or similar. The choosen rating stars are then displayed in the guest's contribution.
• In the Admin Control Panel, the color of the active rating stars can be freely selected from a number of different graphics.
• You can also set whether the average value of all published ratings should be displayed when clicking on published stars.

Improved password protection and renewal of the function to generate a new password if the old one was forgotten.

The "Help" file to be called in the Admin Control Panel is now also available in English and in Portuguese..

Smaller changes to the file "pic.upload" and from the admin area to the files "guestbook" and "guestbook_options".

4.6.3

08/10/2016

Spamfilter is expanded by a new check on another typical feature of many spam bot entries.

If the guestbook is moderated (new entries must be activated by the admin before they are publicly displayed), the guest will now see a corresponding permanent note on the page with the entry form ("insert.php").

Newly added language file "Portuguese". My special thanks go to Mr. Harry Tartsch, Paderborn/Germany and Mr. Christoph Schnell, Mozambique.

With regard to the extended speech offer, the "help"-file to be called up in the admin control panel has been restructured in preparation for a future multilingual presentation.

The language selection for the "thank-you-e-mail" to the guest now takes place automatically according to the set language file.

The text for the name of a link set up by the guest in his post has so far been limited to 28 characters. This restriction is omitted, the linked text can now have a virtually arbitrary length.

When using the guestbook under activated blog mode, no more e-mails are sent to the admin via a photo upload.

On the central page for the administration of the guestbook entries, now you can also block or release an entry by clicking on the corresponding symbol (green hook or red cross) at the end of each entry for the notes "text activated?" and "photo activated?".

Smaller changes to the central CSS.

Bugs: In the preview of a contribution written in the Admin-Control-Panel ("Admin-Blog"), uploaded photos possibly were shown too largely; fault fixed. In addition, errors in the HTML source code of the file "admin blog.php" and a possibly undefined variable in the "guestbook.php" fixed.

4.6.2

03/07/2016

Since v.4.6.2 on the page for new entries "insert.php" a check box can be faded in under the field for a new entry, which allows the guest to choose, whether he/she will be informed about an answer to his posting automatically by e-mail.

Instead of a text link, an HTML-Button can now be used as link to the page for new guestbook entries. The selection is made via radio buttons in the admin control panel. The labeling of the button can be as individual as the text link.

Since v.4.6.2 the guestbook can also be used as a blog, travel diary or similar, so that only the admin can adjust entries and photos there. The form for new entries by third parties is no longer accessible in the blog mode for the public and the links to the "insert.php" on the page with the guestbook entries are dimmed. A new page has been inserted in the admin control panel ("Admin-Blog"), which can be used to write guestbook entries directly from the admin area after login. A spam check does not take place for new entries via the admin control panel. Photos uploaded and inserted in a post are immediately activated.

The appearance of the guestbook entries in the admin panel has been made more visually appealing.

The installer is now bilingual in German and English.

The download is now a ReadMe file in English attached.

4.6.1

01/05/2016

Extended protection of the Admin Control panel against unauthorized intrusion.

Since v.4.6.1, no URL can be entered into one of the other single-line input fields ("Name", "Place", "Country" and/or "Subject") except for the input field provided for entering a homepage address.

On the page to manage the guestbook entries and comments, an Ico is displayed for warning, if the last back-up is older than the last entry in the guestbook. A click on the Ico immediately creates a current back-up.

The help file to be called in the admin area, previously stored as a *.txt file, will be accessible as an HTML page starting with v.4.6.1, which makes targeted search for specific topics easier by means of complex internal linking.

Revision of the file for the determination of the standard template ("default template.php") for a clear acceleration in the call and the selection processing.

Minor changes to the files for sharing or blocking entries by means of link in the admin email.

Fixed an error in the file for editing guest photos.

Completion of the meta tags.

4.6.0

06/02/2016

The possibility that a guest also makes information about his/her origin (place and/or country) has been added.

The input fields in the "insert.php" for "Place" and "Country" on the one hand, as well as for "Homepage" and "ICQ" on the other hand, were arranged side by side. If one of the adjacent input fields is deactivated by the admin, the remaining automatically extends over the full width of the form, in order to preserve a uniform look.

Since v.4.6.0 the text of the "Thank-you-e-mail" which a guest receives after an entry in the guestbook and input of his e-mail address automatically, as soon as the Admin has activated this option, can be written in the Admin-Control-Panel individually. In addition, a separate e-mail address can also be used as the sender of the "Thank-you-e-mail".

The anchor text of the link to the "insert.php" above and below the guestbook entries can be specified individually in the Admin control panel.

The file for logging into the admin area has been revised and improved.

CSS for input and textarea fields revised.

4.5.6

02/01/2016

As of v.4.5.6, the e-mail addresses entered by users of the guestbook can either be displayed -as before- with the e-mail Icon or completely hidden in the public area of the guestbook. As soon as the "Do not show e-mail address" option is selected by the admin, a message appears next to the field for e-mail addresses on the guestbook's entry page, which means that entries in this field remain hidden to the public.

The input fields for an e-mail address and / or a homepage address of the guest are now as optional as the input field for an ICQ link. The selection is made as usual in the "General configuration settings" in the admin area. - E-mail icos or homepage icos, which are stored in older entries, are also no longer displayed after deactivating the input option for e-mail or homepage addresses.

The previous pre-assignment of the input field for a homepage with the beginning of a URL ("http://") has been removed. Starting with v.4.5.6 it is indifferent whether the guest enters a URL in the field only with "www" or even with prefixed "http: //". The program checks the input and, if necessary, supplements a missing entry automatically, which reduces the incorrect input of the user when using "copy and paste".

For all one-line input fields, the user is now shown whether entries are mandatory or optional.

The function for checking the length of entered character strings ("maximum word length") has been fundamentally renewed. - With the old function, a very high (and thus practically largely ineffective) check number had to be entered so that URLs to inserted photos, websites of third parties, BBCode formatting etc. were not "shot" by a sudden upheaval. With the new function, a realistic and thus effective value (presetting now: 36) can be set, after which the program automatically uses a further space, which in turn, for example, automatic breaks without damaging URLs, BBCodes, etc.

Links in guestbook entries may not be displayed correctly if there were certain attachments to the URL, such as with some "youtube"-links or simular. => Bug fixed.

The handling when entering new "Badwords" was adapted to the storage of new "Spamwords". Furthermore, the display was improved when editing uploaded graphics files.

When a display of the IP addresses in the guestbook entries was deactivated, the HTML code was no longer validated => Bug fixed.

Smaller changes to the central CSS, among others in the optical redesign of the buttons.

Some users run the guestbook in an access-protected member area and do not have any need for spam protection or the individual check and approval of each new uploaded image by the admin. The spam filter, the need for an individual check and approval of each new uploaded image by the admin before their display in the guestbook and also the input field for the input of a "subject" to the guestbook entry can be deactivated completely from version 4.5.6. Details are given in the attached ReadMe files.

The installer was reworked in three places.

• So far, the path to the guestbook folder stored in the configuration file by the installer has always been registered with "http", even if the installation was done under a secure connection. From now on, a distinction is made between "http" and "https".
• Second, the installation screen is now asking for the country under which the homepage with the guestbook should run, in order to use this information to determine the appropriate time zone, which is also stored in the configuration file. If necessary, the guestbook script accesses the appropriate time zone and thus determines the time (and date) for entries. - All existing installations do not change. Here, the program determines the time from the "default settings" of the server on which the guestbook is installed.
• The file, with which necessary database updates may be made, has been improved to check whether a database connection exists and to display substantial errors, if necessary.

4.5.5

03/10/2015

The conditions of use for the photo upload have been revised and supplemented. An additional plausibility check has also been added to the photo upload.

The protection of the folder for the uploaded guest photos against malicious attacks by corrupted image files was extended once more.

Duty fields on the entry page are marked by a correspondingly clear text reference and no longer only with the rather inconspicuous star. This possibility borrowed from HTML 5 is quite user-friendly as far as the embedded note does not have to be deleted by the user and the program does not recognize this marker as an entry in the field. The note will automatically disappear with the first entry in the corresponding field.

A spam word can now be entered several times into the corresponding list and thus weighted accordingly higher, because it is counted as many times as a spam feature as it is saved in the list.

In the case of inactivity in the admin area of more than 30 minutes, the session created with the login is destroyed for security reasons and the admin has to log on again. After each click on a link in the admin area, the measurement of this time period starts again from the beginning, in order to avoid an unscheduled logout from the admin area.

Layout of the links in the menu of "admin.php" changed. Adjustments for some functions, partially new formatting and the source code of six other files from the admin area, the "smilies.php" as well as the "bbcodes.php" from the main folder were changed.

The language file "us.php" in the folder "lang" was omitted. Replacement offers the file "en.php".

4.5.4

04/09/2015

With the back-up function of the myPHP Guestbook, the contents of the tables "*_entries" with the guestbook entries and "*_pictures" with the file names, image sizes, title descriptions, etc. of photo uploads is now backed up and can be restored, if necessary.

When setting font sizes > 15px there were unwanted breaks on the "insert.php" when displaying the smilies and the BBCode buttons. => Bug fixed

Extension of the templates and CSS files by a second design in black under the label "myPHP-GBook4_s-black-R".

A small JS script has been added to the file "smilies.php", which displays additional smilies and symbols. This JS script allows the page height of the opening window to be easily and automatic adjusted to avoid additional scrolling.

Revision of the file for the various database updates "database.php".

4.5.3

18/07/2015

Anyone who has activated the photo upload function for guestbook entries can now define the maximum number of uploads for a contribution up to the maximum limit of 10 pieces. If the set limit is reached, further uploads are prohibited.

Extension of the templates and CSS files with an additional design called "myPHP-GBook4_blog".

In the case of the photo upload, in rare cases, a number combination could be created by the generation of a new file name, which prevented the later display of the image in the guestbook. => Bug fixed.

Smaller formatting changes to the "Left" and "Right" templates.

4.5.2

26/06/2015

After some providers had switched from the PHP version 5.6.9 to 5.6.10 in the middle/end of June, the automatic e-mail transmission of the BackUps created with the 'myPHP-Guestbook' program no longer worked reliably. The back-up files were created correctly and stored on the server but not sent. The bug was fixed with v.4.5.2.

4.5.1

20/06/2015

Smaller adjustments to increase the ease of operation in the admin area.

At the suggestion from the user circle, the overflow of an entry was set to "invisible" (overflow:hidden), and minor adjustments were made to the positioning of the "quote" symbol to a guestbook entry.

The interior spaces in the entry field of the templates "classic", "transparent" and "black" as well as the formatting in the "wide" template have been slightly modified.

An error in the source code when incorporating a background graphic was corrected.

4.5.0

01/05/2015

Change of the HTML source code and the CSS of "index.php" and "insert.php", so that the guestbook adapts automatically to the respective window size of the terminal, starting from an almost arbitrarily adjustable width down to 320px, whereby an optimized display is also achieved on tablets and smartphones.

On the two public guestbook pages were also removed almost all inline styles by outsourcing to the central CSS in the header.

The files in the admin area for the creation and editing of templates and CSS were adapted to the changed structure of the layout away from the structure of the guestbook entries with HTML tables.

URLs entered by the guest, for example, to his own homepage or similar, are only checked for correct syntax and they are no longer checked for existence, since there have repeatedly been "wrong error messages".

The three pages, which are opened via a pop-up window (pages for uploading graphic files, for displaying additional smilies and for entering URLs or e-mail addresses in contributions) have been assigned a fixed background and font color.

The "footer.php" has been integrated into the guestbook pages and is therefore no longer required as a separate file.